That's right. Mr. Helpful has been playing doctor... and not the kind that has been known to get people in trouble. Specifically, he's been spending a lot of time reading up on sports medicine.

You see the local doctors have been seeing a big increase in the rate of injuries to kids at school while playing in sports activities. In particular ankle sprains have gone way up and the doctors in town didn't have any more than a few basic means to treat the injuries and not one clue about how to go about preventing them in the first place.

The reason for the increase in the rate of injuries is simple enough. Last year the Nutjob Hills school system added soccer to their list of sports activities. Naturally, Because of all the footwork and running that is central to soccer, there is a sharply increased chance for ankle, leg and knee injuries.

After doing a bit of research Mr. Helpful came up with some common sense type practices such as soccer ankle braces and knee braces that, once people started using them, have served to reduce the number and severity of those injuries by quite a bit.